On the north side of the railway bridge where this suburb of London starts to get slightly less busy than the main commercial centre on its southern side, this is a fairly standard Wetherspoon with a small front but stretches back a fair distance into the building. Itís looks is familiar with a traditional soft furnish finish throughout. Itís busy all day and will suffice for an ale or two if youíre desperate, but despite living in Brixton for over 2 years, I only popped in here a handful of times given it can be a rough and ready place at times.

Why did I end up here? Well, first of all I came to Brixton because I wanted some Brixton Pound (Iím not only a beer geek...) and the fact that Craft Beer Brixton opens damn late, "forced" me to pop in for a beer. Cesspit? Cantankerous boozers? Intimitating blokes? Well, I havenít been here after sunset and Brixton isnít the posh Mayfair for sure. But, certainly more colorful and exciting! (Visited February 28th 2014)

Have popped in on a few occasions prior to a gig at the Academy.
Thank god for the Craft - Iíll never have to enter this cesspit again!
Typical dark and dingey spoons layout, no daylight other than the frontage, a little dirtier than most.
Very average beer range with one or two guests beyond the stock Abbot/Ruddles piffle - if youíre lucky.
Service was pretty lousy but it has always been packed due to there being a gig on when Iíve called in.
Clientele is Dubious with a capital D.
When I nipped to the toilets once a couple of indimidating blokes were asking for money and practically demanding cigarettes of some younger guys.
Not nice, avoid !

Stuck my head in here to see if the London Ale Festival was on. After avoiding the perennial homeless guy outside asking for change to buy a beer, I got in to find a few other homeless types propping themselves up on the tables and making a beer last several hours. Unfortunately it came with the smell to match. Quick scan of the beer revealed no beer festival and just the very familiar brands. No decent bottles either. It seems like itís mainly popular with the local Jamaican over-65s brigade as someone else has pointed out here. With Craft Brixton one minute around the corner I cannot see any good reason to ever go in here again.

To echo the sentiments of a previous review, this place certainly does have an eclectic consumer base. All walks of life were observed on my visit. Plenty of cantankerous boozers add that pleasant level of danger everybody loves. The beers are dirt cheap. About eight real ales on tap. If youíre in Brixton, perhaps about to see a show at the O2 Brixton Academy, this would be an alright place to stop in for a quick beer.

Several years ago, a friend and I stumbled into this place one morning - they werenít open yet but had neglected to lock the doors. Chappie behind the bar said it was too early to sell us a pint but we could have one for free. Hence the "10" rating for value. Result!

This is a very unusaul bar - it has become THE bar for Jamaican pensioners and (male) Somali refugees in Brixton due to the low prices.
Nevertheless it attracts a regular crew of real ale fans as well, so it is perhaps the most cosmopolitan real ale outlet in Britain!
The staff too are cosmopolitan - Poland is well represented, obviously, but we also have Sierra Leone, Kenya, Jamaica and Uzbekistan.
One for the Guardian readers amongst us!

this page requires javascript

If you are using a script blocker please enable all of this page, including scripts from google.com. googlesyndication.com and google-analytics.com. These scripts are important to the health and happiness of this site.